Pop-ups (also known as balloons or tips) are known in the art and are used in Microsoft Windows® application programs and in computer aided drafting application programs, for example. Referring to FIG. 1, a graphical user interface 10 of the prior art has a canvas 12 displaying a plurality of objects. In the present example, the interface 10 is a drawing program for building a form, and the objects on the canvas 12 include boxes, fields, text, etc. As shown in FIG. 1, a user has used a mouse pointer 14 to select and highlight an object 16, in this example a box, and a pop-up 20 according to the prior art is displayed adjacent the pointer 14, which comprises a displayable element or window within the graphical user interface 10. The pop-up 20 provides information about the selected object 16. For example, the pop-up 20 in FIG. 1 shows the object's X-Y coordinates on the canvas 12.
When working with the graphical user interface 10, the user may wish to change a property (size, height, width, color, X-Y coordinates, font, etc.) of the selected object 16. However, the pop-up 20 is static, and the user cannot interact with the pop-up 20. In addition, the pop-up 20 typically disappears immediately after the user moves the mouse pointer 14 away from the object 16 or soon afterwards. To change a property of the selected object 16, the user must affirmatively select an option of the graphical user interface 10 using, for example, a menu. Referring to FIGS. 2A-2B, typical menu operations are illustrated that allow a user to access and change property information of the selected object 16. In one type of menu operation shown in FIG. 2A, the user, after highlighting the object in question, accesses a dropdown menu 18 on the toolbar of the interface 10 using the mouse pointer 14. In another type of menu operation shown in FIG. 2B, the user accesses a dropdown menu 19 after right-clicking with a mouse on the selected object 16.
On these menus 18 or 19, the user typically selects “properties . . . ” with the mouse pointer 14, and a dialog box 22 is thereafter displayed on the canvas 12. The user can then change properties of the selected object 16 using text fields in the dialog box 22. As shown in FIGS. 2A-2B, the dialog box 22 can be “docked,” meaning that the dialog box 22 can be fixed in a set persistent position on the canvas 12 (usually to the side), although such prior art dialog boxes have also been made moveable and non-persistent on the canvas. Such dialog boxes 22 are typically used in drawing programs, such as Adobe Illustrators, and several of such dialog boxes can be opened and docked at one time on the canvas 12. The docked dialog box 22 must be independently closed to remove it from the canvas 12, such as by selecting the “X” button at the top of the box. Furthermore, the dialog boxes 22 occupy valuable space of the canvas 12 by overlapping existing objects on the canvas 12 or by reducing the size of the canvas 12 to fit the docked dialog box 22 in the interface 10.
To enter changes to properties of the selected object 16, the user must move the pointer 14 from the selected object 16 to the dialog box 22 and edit a property value in fields of the dialog box 22. To continue working with the objects in the canvas 12 after such editing, the user must then move the pointer 14 back to the objects displayed on the rest of the canvas 12. If the user selects another object 16 in the canvas 12, the dialog box 22 typically remains docked in the canvas 12 and changes to reflect the properties of the newly selected object 16. Again however, the user must move the pointer 14 from the selected object 16 to the dialog box 22 to change a property, and then move the pointer 14 to the objects to continue working.
Using the conventional menu operations and dialog boxes 22 to change object property information as described above can inconvenience the user. For example, changing properties of a selected object requires repeated selection of objects and movements to and from the dialog box 22 to enter changes. In addition, the dialog box 22 obscures the view of the canvas 12 and must be independently closed to remove the box 22 from the canvas 12.
The subject matter of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.